


Best Friends

by IetjeSiobhan



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, This is just 5k of Tadashi being in love with Tsukki, that's it that's the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:46:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26677657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IetjeSiobhan/pseuds/IetjeSiobhan
Summary: Tadashi keeps coming to the conclusion that he’s in love with his best friend.
Relationships: Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi, very minor implied Shimizu Kiyoko/Yachi Hitoka (they get mentioned once)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 190





	Best Friends

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is my 'Happy birthday Tsukki' contribution. Happy birthday Tsukki!! :)
> 
> I finished this at half past one in the morning after ignoring it's existence for several weeks, so I'm not entirely sure what to say about this, but it's here and it's done, so enjoy, I guess?
> 
> Huge thanks to my beta Skyorpheus (@skyorpheus on twt) who is the only reason this isn't overrun with exhaustion-induced typos and still wages my war with commas for me.
> 
> Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. I do not financially profit from this work. The characters do not belong to me, I merely borrowed them.

Tadashi keeps coming to the conclusion that he’s in love with his best friend.

He may need to back up a little, here. He didn’t just wake up one morning and go ‘oh, I’m in love with Tsukki!’. It started slower than that.

It started in middle school, actually, when Tadashi had looked at Kei one day during volleyball training and Kei had already been looking at him. Why, Tadashi doesn’t know. Maybe Kei had wanted to check up on him, maybe Tadashi had moved in a weird way and caught Kei’s gaze, or maybe Kei had just been looking in that general direction and Tadashi had simply been the first thing in his line of sight. It doesn’t really matter, in the end. What matters is that Tadashi had looked at Kei, and Kei had already been looking at him, and Tadashi had caught Kei’s gaze and felt warm and tingly all over in an entirely new way.  
  
He didn’t really think about it. As these things go, he’d had more important things on his mind at that time, and the fact that the warm, tingly feeling kept happening around Kei was just not worth spending too much energy thinking about it.  
  
Maybe he also hadn’t wanted to think about it.

By the time high school came around, Tadashi had become quite accustomed to _not thinking about it_.

So _of course_ he’d had to go and fuck everything up by starting to dream about Kei.

Now, this in and of itself wasn’t really all that unusual; Tadashi has always been quite the avid dreamer, and since meeting Kei he’d become quite the regular feature in Tadashi’s dreams. What was new and unusual, however, was dreaming about Kei kissing him.  
  
Tadashi hadn’t been able to look his best friend in the eyes for about two days after the first dream. Since these dreams kept happening, however, he became accustomed to them too, and things between him and Kei had returned to normal. Normal including Tadashi’s strict routine of ‘not thinking about it’. His by then normalized routine of ‘not thinking about it’ also started including ‘not thinking about the way Kei’s hair looks in the sunshine’, ‘not thinking about how his arms feel around me when we cuddle’, ‘not thinking about the long line of his throat when he tips his head back to drink’ and a million other little things, but all in all, it had been going quite well. Kei was Tadashi’s best friend, and Tadashi was very determinedly not thinking about him being anything else.

And then, two weeks ago, a girl had gone and found the courage to confess to Kei.  
  
Tadashi and Kei had just been minding their business, eating lunch in their secluded corner, as usual. Kei had been quietly focused on his lunch, Tadashi had been chattering about their day, and every once in a while, Kei had made a little remark or comment, showing Tadashi he was actually paying him a good part of his attention.

And then the girl had come in. Tadashi doesn’t remember her name – he doesn’t think she deserves him remembering her name, and he had also been too spooked by her coming up and just outright introducing herself to Kei without a hint of trepidation to properly pay attention to it.

Her confession hadn’t been a big thing – she had simply said “I like you, would you want to go out with me sometime?” and that had been it, but in that single moment it had felt like the biggest thing on earth. Tadashi had felt like he was shattering into a million pieces and his entire body had gone cold and shaky. He’d been completely out of it, his stomach feeling a lot more like an unpleasant knot than a stomach.  
  
Kei, however, had just looked at her, said “No, I’m not interested” without any inflection in his voice, not even apologizing, before directing his attention towards his lunch again.

And that had been that. Not even two minutes spent on the whole ordeal.

Kei had looked distinctly uninterested in the topic when Tadashi had tried to bring it up later that day and the girl hadn’t bothered talking to them again. All in all, there was not one single good reason to even think about it afterwards.  
  


Somehow, though, those few seconds on an otherwise completely uninteresting Wednesday had completely shaken up Tadashi’s entire careful routine of resolutely _not thinking about it_.

Tadashi has spent the last two weeks thinking about it. About everything. About the way he goes warm all over whenever Kei so much as looks at him for longer than a few seconds; about the way his heart threatens to beat out of his chest when Kei says his name, ‘Tadashi’, all soft and gentle, the way he only does when they’re in the confines of their respective houses, away from prying ears; about the way sunlight catches in Kei’s hair and makes it look like molten gold; about the way Kei looks when he’s blocking, all long, powerful lines and working muscles. He’s found that now that he’s allowed himself to look and think, he _can’t stop_.

He lays awake at night, thinking about Kei and his soft skin and beautiful eyes. He looks at Kei and thinks about his lips, how soft they look, how they would taste. He watches Kei block or spike and can’t look away from his big, powerful hands, his long fingers, wondering how they’d feel holding his own.

The more he thinks about it, the more he keeps coming to the conclusion that apparently, he has managed to fall in love with his best friend over the course of the last few years.

It feels like it was inevitable, now that he’s given himself the time to mull it over. He doesn’t feel like he’s ever had a chance. He was doomed the moment he met Kei, this big, lanky kid with disdain written all over his features.

It feels like a problem, a big one.

Because Kei is tall, beautiful, and so, _so_ smart. He’s incredible at the things he sets his mind to, and his soft smiles, the ones he reserves for when they’re in the confines of their rooms, could melt glaciers.

People look at him and see someone snarky and mean, but Tadashi looks at him and sees his _world_ , and this is a problem because Tadashi is just the kid who followed Kei around long enough until he had carved himself a place by his side. Tadashi chose Kei the moment he met him, but Kei has never chosen _Tadashi_.

He doesn’t think he’s an inconvenience to Kei, not anymore, not with how Kei treats him when no one is around and with how he shows him the sides of himself that nobody but Tadashi gets to see. He knows that he probably knows Kei better than even Kei’s brother Akiteru does, and that’s something _big_ , something that feels incredible and unbelievable.

But at the end of the day, he’s just Tadashi. He’s Kei’s best friend, but only that: a _friend_. Kei has never consciously chosen Tadashi. One day, he might choose someone, a girl he won’t reject, who’s as beautiful and blinding and smart as him.

Tadashi will try to be happy for him, when the day comes, he really, truly will try his very best, but for now, simply thinking about it makes him feel like he’s dying.

Therein lies the problem, he thinks. He keeps coming to the conclusion that he’s in love with his best friend. He keeps coming to the conclusion that he’s in love with his best _friend_.

\--

Tadashi likes morning practice. Mostly because he gets to go with Kei, who will arrive sleepy and disgruntled at Tadashi’s doorstep every morning without fail.

They never really talk that much at this time of day; Kei’s not the most talkative person in general, unless you get him to talk about his interests – if he actually trusts you enough to do it, that is – and Tadashi likes the quiet of early mornings, when it’s still dark outside, everyone around them asleep. He likes walking next to Kei and feeling like it’s just them in the entirety of this whole universe and nobody else. He likes the way their hands will sometimes brush because they walk to close next to each other, and how Kei seems content to just be there, in this moment, with Tadashi right by his side.  
  
(In hindsight, he thinks he could probably have noticed the fact that he’s in love with Kei far earlier, if he’d just let himself think about it.)

Their moment of quiet will, of course, inevitably come to a halt by the time they reach the gym. This is also the same every morning: Hinata and Kageyama will already be there, masquerading their flirting as insults, being way too loud for the time of day.

Kei stops for a moment outside of the gym, sighs, quietly, adjusts the strap of the bag over his shoulder and pushes his glasses up.

Tadashi grins at him and nudges his side a little. This is part of their morning routine as well. Kei usually needs a moment to get himself ready for the flood of sensory impressions and noise that is training with their team, and Tadashi likes having Kei to himself for just a second longer.

“Well,” Kei sighs then, “shall we?”

“Let’s go, Tsukki,” Tadashi replies cheerfully, and they step into the gym.  
  


Kei is having a bad day, it seems. This happens sometimes; Tadashi has long gotten used to it. Usually, Tadashi can tell as soon as they meet up in the morning – it’s something in the slump of Kei’s shoulders that lets him know. Today it seems the day started off alright for Kei, but abruptly goes downhill as soon as they enter the noisy gym.

Tadashi can tell the minute they step inside – the way Kei tenses up, his mouth pressing into a thin line. The way Kei holds his entire body changes. Tadashi can see his fingers clench.

He wants to soothe him, run his hands along his shoulders, give him a back rub, maybe. Kei would never let him though – not in the open, where people can see them. Kei values his privacy. He doesn’t like people knowing even the most mundane things about him, and letting his façade slip, letting people see him _vulnerable_ and accepting affection is most definitely the last thing he wants.

Tadashi can respect this.

It still frustrates him that he can’t help.

Instead of doing anything Kei may resent, he gently knocks their shoulders together and quietly asks “Okay?”

Kei nods and his eyes find Tadashi’s for a second. There’s gratefulness in them, for noticing, probably, but knowing not to be overt about it. The by-product of having known each other as long as they have is that they can read each other easily like that, and for a moment the affection that courses through Tadashi, hot and burning, floors him. He loves this boy more than he knows what to do with.  
  


\--  
  


They try to start their part of the practice in silence, and maybe a secluded corner – Coach Ukai isn’t there yet and everyone else seems to be practicing in teams of two, so it seems the logical thing to do.

They get exactly two minutes before Nishinoya bounds into the gym, loud and exuberant as always. The noise level goes up by a considerable amount, Noya and Hinata spurning each other on, and Tadashi can see Kei flinch a little bit each time one of them is particularly loud. His forehead is in wrinkles, and Tadashi just wants to wrap him up in his arms.  
  
It seems noise is the perpetrator, then, today.  
  
It shouldn’t surprise him, but Kei feeling this badly is enough to completely distract Tadashi.

He doesn’t even notice that he’s stopped doing anything and is just looking at Kei in concern, completely disregarding the entirety of the rest of the gym, until someone lays a gentle hand on his arm and spooks Tadashi enough to jump a little bit.

“S- sorry!” Yachi immediately apologizes, taking her hand away as if burned.  
  
“Oh. Hi Yachi-san,” Tadashi greets, his cheeks flushing. Yachi is already curling into herself a little bit, but seems a lot less shaken by having spooked him than she would’ve been back when she had just started her manager role. Tadashi gives her a sheepish smile and shoots Kei another glance to make sure he’s okay.

Kei doesn’t _look_ okay. If anything, he looks a little more tense than he did before, an obvious frown on his face, but he’s also not looking at Tadashi, so Tadashi can’t really send him a small uplifting smile or a look or anything to make sure Kei knows he’s there for him.

Instead, he turns his attention towards Yachi who’s watching him carefully. She still looks a little shaky, but she almost always looks a little shaky. She also looks concerned.

“Are you okay?” she asks timidly, seemingly watching for tells on his face.

“Su-sure! Why wouldn’t I be!” Tadashi attempts a carefree smile. He’s not sure if he succeeds; she’s still watching him closely.  
  
“You seem distracted, is all,” she murmurs, looking down at the ground for a second, trying to hide behind her hair, her shoulders coming up protectively. Then she straightens again, and determinedly looks at him again.

“You know you can always talk to me, right? Please take care of yourself!” Her voice takes on a tone of determination and she steadily holds his eyes, her composure only betrayed by the flush on her cheeks and the way in which her voice and shoulders are shaking a little bit.  
  
“Yes, thank you, Yachi-san,” he says softly. He pats her shoulder, and her cheeks flush a little more.

“W-well then!” she says, straightening her composure somewhat, and determinedly walks back towards Kiyoko. He can see her shoulders slumping a little bit halfway through. He knows that trying to be steady and a good shoulder to lean on probably takes a lot out of her, but he really appreciates her trying. He can relate to her shakiness a little bit; he was never this bad, but there are times when he comes close, feeling like he’s going to fall apart at the seams. He can also relate to the way she’s turning into a bright-red puddle as soon as Kiyoko looks at her, starting to shake quite badly again. He wants to maybe offer her support now, say ‘I know what it feels like to be helplessly in love with someone’, offer to talk about it, but he doesn’t. Now is not the time, anyway. And their situations are different, at the end of the day, because he’s seen the soft way Kiyoko looks at Yachi, and he thinks at least Yachi will probably get her happy end.  
  
And now is _really_ not the time. Since Kei, the reason for Tadashi’s puddle-moments, is having an off day and Tadashi needs to be there for him.

 _Needs to_ , is feeling it like an ache in his chest. He needs Kei to know that Tadashi will _always_ be there for him. He wants to be the one Kei trusts with his off days, with his problems. The idea of Kei turning to someone else or no one at all makes his stomach knot up so badly he has trouble breathing for a second.  
  
‘Breathe, Tadashi,’ he reminds himself. ‘It’s going to be fine.’

He takes a few seconds and then looks over at Kei again who returns his look this time, slowly lifting one eyebrow. Tadashi shoots a quick grin at him. ‘I’m okay,’ it’s saying, and also ‘you _really_ should not be worrying about me right now’. Kei inclines his head in a nod, and Tadashi feels so stupidly warm all over, just because he knows he’s the only one who can read Kei like this – and, even more importantly, who Kei feels the need to check in with like this.

He wants to close the few metres of space between them, walk over to where Kei stands and hug him, bury his head in Kei’s chest, chant ‘you’re mine’ into his neck, or maybe just put an arm around him and pet him until Kei seems less tense. He’s not sure. The only thing he knows for sure is that he loves Kei.

He keeps realising this over and over again and he doesn’t know what to do with it. _I love him, I love him, I love him_ , his brain chants, and Tadashi resolutely decides to go back to not thinking about that for at least morning practice and picks up another volleyball to practice his serve.

\--

Kei’s mood seems to keep declining and by the time lunch break rolls around, he’s so visibly tense that Tadashi is _sure_ he’s not the only one to notice it anymore.

He doesn’t bring it up because they’re at school; even if they weren’t, Kei probably wouldn’t want to talk about it. But if they were home, at Kei’s house or his, they could snuggle up on the bed, and Tadashi could rub soothing circles into Kei’s back until the tension bleeds out. Maybe Kei would even let Tadashi pet his hair. He could wrap Kei up in blankets and put on some documentary about – insects, probably, or maybe dinosaurs.

They’re at school, though, so Tadashi settles for letting his knee knock into Kei’s and Kei leans into the touch subtly, subsequently making Tadashi feel warm all over once again.  
  
He doesn’t ask Kei about it, just eats quietly with him. Usually, he would chatter about something, anything, but when Kei is tense like this, he sometimes just wants some quiet, and since Tadashi is pretty sure noise is what set it off in the first place, he just lets an amicable silence grow between them.  
  
Kei seems to relax a little bit, sitting in the back corner of their classroom with Tadashi, nobody else in the room, just letting their knees touch, silently eating, and by the time lunch break ends, he’s not quite as tense anymore.  
  
Tadashi smiles at him, softly, and puts his hand on Kei’s shoulder, letting it linger for a second, to tell him ‘It’s okay’ before going back to his desk, and Kei doesn’t smile back at him, but the right corner of his lips quirks up a little bit and that’s all that Tadashi needs, really.

\--

By the time school lets out and afternoon practice comes around, Kei is completely tensed up again. Tadashi has been concentrating on him instead of his classes for the entire last hour and at this point he honestly just wants to drag Kei home and take care of him.

Instead, they still have afternoon practice to go through and Tadashi feels kind of miserable.

He hates seeing Kei like this. Kei hasn’t had a day this bad in quite some time, but he has been having slightly bad days more often in the last two weeks. Tadashi can’t really seem to pinpoint any reason. He is going to keep trying, though, until he finds the source and can eliminate it.  
  
Their trip to the gymnasium is quiet – Tadashi tries to ask if Kei wants to go home, maybe, instead of practicing, but when he looks at Kei, he just shuts his mouth instead of speaking the actual words. Kei doesn’t look like he’s willing to give anyone ammunition on him by skipping practice.  
  


\--

“We’re going to play some three on three games today,” Coach lets them know. “I want you to mix up your usual combinations. That means _no_ , Nishinoya, you’re not playing with Azumane, and _no_ , Hinata, you’re not playing with Kageyama.” He also shoots Tadashi and Kei a look. Right then. So they’re probably – most definitely – not supposed to play in the same team either.

Tadashi feels like kicking up a fuss for a short second, but then he takes in the firm set of Coach Ukai’s shoulders and the tense line Kei’s mouth is pressed into, and decides all he’d probably manage to do is aggravate the both of them by arguing a moot point and making Kei the centre of attention, which is just not worth it.  
  
He doesn’t like this, though.

Usually, he’d be happy to play with anyone on the team – he doesn’t enjoy going up against Kei all that much because he’s not capable of being upset over Kei scoring, but it’s not like it’s a problem.

Today, though.

Today he’d rather have Kei’s back, keep an eye on him. He can’t support Kei the way he wants to if he’s on another team, maybe one that’s not even playing Kei’s team. It’s frustrating.  
  
He tries not to let his frustration show, though, because Hinata is already bounding over to him, demanding in a loud voice that they play together.  
  
“Your serves have been getting so much better!” he loudly exclaims, eyes sparkling in a distinctly Hinata way, and so that’s that. Tadashi makes sure to grin at him, because even if he’s currently bad at paying attention to anything that’s not Kei, he truly likes Hinata and doesn’t want to upset him by not returning his excitement.

It turns out they do, in fact, end up not playing Kei’s team.

Hinata, Sugawara and Tadashi have wound up as a team, and they end up facing Tanaka, Ennoshita and Narita, which is a slightly weird mix, but one Tadashi is sure they’d be somewhat able to deal with – if it weren’t for the fact that he feels completely incapable of actually focusing on the match.

His attention keeps snapping over to Kei, observing him interacting with Kinoshita and Asahi, and by the time practice is finally, _finally_ done, his team hasn’t managed to scrape up one single win.

Hinata is obviously disappointed but he still tries to encourage Tadashi, and Suga has most definitely noticed something’s going on if his concerned looks are anything to go by.

Tadashi tries to avoid any sort of contact with him while they’re cleaning up and getting changed. He really doesn’t feel like explaining himself.

And what is he supposed to say, anyway? ‘Kei is tense, so I’m worried and incapable of focusing on anything but him?’ He’s pretty sure that wouldn’t go over too well.

\--

Kei and Tadashi hadn’t explicitly made plans for Tadashi to come over that day but they seldomly do. Tadashi doesn’t need a clear-cut invitation to follow Kei home. He and Kei hang out on most days, the only exceptions usually on the days Tadashi has extra practice with Shimada-senpai.

It’s a comfortable rhythm, for the both of them, by now – this routine of Kei walking home and Tadashi either following him or wandering off to train his float serves.

On some days, Kei will actually verbally invite Tadashi over – usually when there’s a documentary on that he’s excited about and wants to watch with Tadashi, or when there’s an exam coming up and he plans on doing some joint studying. On most days, though, Tadashi will invite himself over.

Because they’re such a well-oiled machine by now, Kei isn’t surprised when Tadashi follows him home.

Kei’s parents aren’t yet home and his brother isn’t visiting, so the house is empty when they arrive. They’re both silent – they haven’t talked on the way home, Tadashi still not entirely sure where Kei’s acceptance level for noise lays today, just that it’s low. He’s pretty sure that it was the right call, seeing as Kei has slowly but surely relaxed somewhat on the way home.

They get themselves set up on Kei’s bed.

Or, rather: Kei gets himself set up on his bed. He unceremoniously dumps his bag in a corner of his room, puts a warm pullover on and then basically throws himself onto the bed, just aimlessly laying on his back, staring at the ceiling.

Tadashi regards him for a short moment before dumping his own bag next to Kei’s and crawling onto Kei’s bed, laying down next to him, his side pressed against Kei’s. As opposed to him, he’s not staring at the ceiling but instead looking over at Kei, watching him.

Kei looks beautiful, because he always does, with his fine-boned face and his hair that glimmers like gold when the light hits it just right, but he also looks exhausted. There are bags under his eyes and there’s a tension to him, showing itself in the lines of his face and neck.

“You haven’t been feeling well today,” Tadashi says, because between the two of them, he’s usually the one to breach harder topics, if they get breached at all. “Actually, you’ve been a little off the last two weeks, but today it seems to be especially bad.”

Kei just hums noncommittally. Tadashi didn’t expect him to just start explaining himself anyway, though. That’s not how Kei works. He’s closed off, reluctant. It’s not because he’s an asshole, as Kageyama would undoubtedly say, but because he’s vulnerable and afraid of being hurt. Tadashi gets that.

He’s known Kei for a long time and has been there to witness the changes in his character. Kei has never been incredibly talkative and expressive, but there was a lightness and excitement to him, once, before the incident with Akiteru. Now he keeps all his emotions on the inside, as if he’ll shatter if he dares to show there’s more to him than snark and cleverness.

“You could talk about it, with me,” Tadashi offers now. Sometimes Kei will open up to him. It doesn’t happen too often, but it happens.

Kei is always open with Tadashi, in a way. His usual openness is allowing himself to be seen vulnerable and letting Tadashi take care of him, a little bit. The openness that includes actual verbal communication doesn’t come often, though. When it happens, Tadashi guards it like it’s the most expensive treasure. It is, in a way, to him.

“It’s undignified,” Kei offers, and then quiets again, still staring at the ceiling. His jaw works tensely.

“Nothing about me is particularly dignified, so your emotions would be in good company,” Tadashi teases, shooting Kei a smile. Kei can’t see his smile because he’s not looking at Tadashi, but with how well they know each other, Tadashi is sure it translates into his voice.

“Shut up, Yamaguchi,” Kei grumbles, but he sounds soft and the left corner of his mouth is ticking up a little.

Tadashi loves him, more than he has the words to describe.

“Sorry, Tsukki,” he says, still smiling.

Kei is quiet, for a while. Then he says, “I didn’t plan on actually telling you this.” Tadashi musters him, curiously. Kei seems even more tense now than he was before. He slowly lets out a breath.

“I’ve been thinking about dating,” he says, finally, and all of a sudden Tadashi feels like all the air’s been sucked out of him, like someone has punched him in the stomach.

“Oh,” he makes, quietly. He looks away from Kei, now. He’s not sure how to look at him right now: not Kei with his beautiful face and soft hair and smart eyes and lips that form the snarkiest smirks. He’s in love, so, so in love with Kei, and Kei has been thinking about dating. Suddenly it makes sense, that he’s been off for about two weeks now – ever since that girl confessed to him.

“I’ve been thinking about you, dating,” Kei clarifies, and Tadashi’s head whips around. He stares. Kei is still resolutely looking at the ceiling.

“I – I’m sorry, w-what?” Tadashi stammers. He can’t possibly have heard that right. Why would Kei be thinking about _Tadashi’s_ dating life?

“It just struck me as odd, suddenly, that I’ve never seen you being confessed to.”

“Well, I’ve never _been_ confessed to,” Tadashi says, weakly. He feels like he must be in some sort of alternate reality because there’s no way sentences like this would leave the mouth of the Kei he knows.

“Tch,” Kei makes, and that sounds a lot more familiar.

“A-and anyway, why would anyone confess to me, when I’m right beside you all the time and you’re _you_ ,” Tadashi says, before he even knows what he’s saying. He immediately feels his face flush. He can’t believe he let these words spill out of his mouth, his feelings for Kei hanging glaringly obvious in between them, hiding behind ‘and you’re _you_ ’, waiting to whip someone over the head with their existence.

“Tch,” Kei makes again. And then he says, quietly, “I’ve been trying to figure out how to confess to you.”

Everything screeches to a halt. Tadashi’s world stops, and then his heart starts beating overtime. There’s no way he’s heard that right, no way Kei, the object of Tadashi’s affections since he was in middle school, just said this.

“Tsukki–” he says, breathless. Kei is still staring at the ceiling.

“Tsukki,” he repeats, and he sounds desperate, feels desperate. He rolls onto his side and stares at Kei, his heart beating faster than it ever has before.

Slowly, very slowly, Kei looks away from the ceiling and at Tadashi.

“Tsukki, does that mean that you–” Tadashi starts saying, but stops mid-sentence. He can’t even say it, put it into words. He feels completely overwhelmed.

“What else, idiot,” Kei says, but there’s no heat to his voice. Instead, there’s a heavy amount of trepidation. He looks shy and insecure, more so than Tadashi has ever seen him in his life.

“Oh my god, Tsukki,” Tadashi breathes, “I like you too, so much, so, so much, I can’t believe – are you really serious?” He can see Kei’s expression change then; his face softens, the fear being replaced by something bright and gleaming. There’s an expression in his eyes that Tadashi has never seen before, and he wants to bottle it up and look at it for the rest of his life.

“Tsukki,” he says, feeling helpless, and then he leans over and kisses Kei, because he can’t not do it, not with Kei in front of him, looking open and vulnerable and _happy_ and liking him back.

Kei’s lips are a little chapped and dry and it takes Kei a second to relax into Tadashi, but when he does, it feels like the best thing in the entire world. Happiness, hot and melting, courses through Tadashi’s veins, and he sighs a little into the kiss before separating their lips again. He looks at Kei for a moment, at the dazed expression on his face, and then hides his own face and the gigantic grin he can feel stretching it open into Kei’s chest.

“You like me,” he says, a little disbelievingly. And then, “Tsukki, does that mean we’re dating now?”

Kei laughs, quietly, and Tadashi wants to melt. He loves him _so much_.

“If you want to, then yes.”

“ _Yes_ ,” Tadashi says, hastily enough that he feels a little embarrassed about it, before a thought crosses his mind. “The next time someone confesses to you, I can tell them you’re _taken_ ,” he says, and then he feels his face blush even more furiously, embarrassment taking hold of him. He should definitely stop talking now. That sounded _way_ too possessive and vindictive.

Kei chuckles. “And here I was worrying about what to do if someone confessed to you before I could get the nerves up,” he says. “All the while you were doing your own jealous wallowing.”

Tadashi wants to deny it, for a second, say that he wasn’t _wallowing_ ; but he kind of was, and Kei doesn’t sound upset about it at all, there’s genuine happiness and wonder beneath the teasing lilt of his voice. And then he thinks he can be fine with admitting to it, because he has Kei now, and Kei was being upset _too_ , and Tadashi feels indescribably happy.

He doesn’t know how Kei could have worried, could have ever missed that Tadashi was a sure thing from the very beginning, because he _is_. He’s the surest thing, easy for Kei in a way he can’t ever imagine being for anyone else, and Kei likes him too.

Tadashi grins just a little bit harder into Kei’s chest and thinks that he’ll make sure that Kei never, ever doubts Tadashi’s feelings for him. If he can spend the rest of his life showing Kei how much he loves him, that’s a life well spent.

He can’t wait.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading this at least a little!  
> And if you could maybe take the time to leave me a small comment, that would absolutely make my day :)
> 
> Find me on twitter @ shiwiwrites where I do a fair amount of screaming about Haikyuu and post updates about my writing :)


End file.
